The Violent Advent of God's Kingdom

Father, I thank you for this day. Thank you for this text of scripture. It's focused on how your kingdom Lord comes violently. Or I pray that you just be with me and give me the words to speak or this is your holy word.

It's the word that has been passed down through many generations the patriarchs through many different. It's come to us on a sea of blood that the martyrs and the translators Lord I pray that you would just press this on our heart Lord and help us to press in after you Christ him.

Matthew 11:12 as a Theme Verse and the Image of a Tsunami

I Matthew 11 12 for me is as a theme verse in my life. I know many of you I've talked with brother Keith about this before but frequently this this verse I just love this verse the Puritans did to. Actually, Thomas Watson has a book called haven't taken by storm.

Studying holy violence like that. I highly recommend reading that book if you haven't. Today I want to start off talking with. How many of you know what a tsunami is? That's a very, you know, it's probably a less common natural disaster compared to earthquakes or volcanoes a tsunami.

If you remember back in 2005 There was a really big tsunami in the Indian Ocean and a tsunami basically occurs with millions of cubic of meters of waters are displaced. By either an earthquake a volcano or some of their tectonic activity.

These waves travel extremely fast 500 miles an hour, which is the speed of a jet plane and they're capable of great destruction. One interesting feature of tsunami though is when they're at sea. It's just a small ripple because their water is so deep the volume of water.

There's a small little ripple at sea. But as it comes closer to land those waves build up and crush everything in its path. Actually in 2005 when there was a tsunami in Indonesia a lot of fishermen that were out fishing and see they just small a bear Ripple, but then as it got closer and closer to shore It started mounting up higher and higher until they had 30 or 40 foot waves and they destroyed and kill a lot of people.

In many ways the kingdom of heaven and Jesus arrival is like a tsunami. The messianic promise is spread throughout the Old Testament. But it's a ripple. It's just small little pictures here and there little glimpses you see in the mirror darkly in the glass dimly.

But when Jesus started his ministry in 30 AD His appearance and work were like a tsunami that turned the Jewish people and their religious leadership upside down. The kingdom of heaven came violently with Jesus and the violence wasn't a physical violence.

It wasn't a violence where we see people fighting or killing. Jesus was not that way at all. But it was a spiritual violence that swept away all the traditions of the Jewish people and all the types and shadows and brought God's Final cup and and was the full unveiling of God's final covenant with mankind.

John's Office Vindicated by Scripture and by Jesus

My first point today. I want to talk to you about is John's office vindicated. Matthew Henry says this about John. That which advanced John above the Old Testament prophets was that he went immediately before Christ.

Note the nearer any are to Christ the more truly honorable they are. This applies to us as well. Do you want to be great in this life? Be close to Christ. Pray to Christ. Read the Bible. Love Jesus. That's what's important as being close to Christ not your position not your prominence.

Not what you do the most important thing in life that you can do is be close to Christ. Testifying to unity of Scripture. Jesus gave a double endorsement to John's ministry. If you frequently the Bible says in many points that every fact should be established with the mouth of one or two witnesses.

Deuteronomy 1915 says. One witness shall not rise against the man concerning iniquity or a sin that he commits by the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter Shall be established again, Matthew 1816 says.

But if he will not hear take a few one or two more by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Chronologically the first witness to John's ministry Was the prophecy of the Old Testament those came chronologically first.

Jesus references this in Matthew 11 9 when I just read it to you Matthew 11 9 says I tell you more than a prophet. I'm sorry Matthew 11 10 is where he actually lists the the prophecy from Isaiah. However, Jesus inverts.

It's funny. Jesus inverts the actual national order and he places his endorsement of John first. He doesn't start with the Old Testament. He starts with him. Why does he do this? There's a few different, you know thoughts that come to my is this a reference To the ministry of John and the arrival of Jesus from the religious world upside down.

Does he has placed himself first to show his life as a film of the Old Testament promise? That's one potential Answer there is this an implicit rebuke up to the religious elite who clung to the shadows over the substance.

Which is Christ that is possible to if you remember when Jesus was born the Pharisees knew exactly where Jesus would be born. But what did they do? They sat there in Herod's palace and said, oh, yeah, he's born of Bethlehem.

They didn't care to go down to see him. Or, you know as religious gatekeepers the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were very quick to cast dispersion or doubt on any prophet or teacher that did not Subscribe to the teachings of their sex.

So if anyone arose from that wasn't from the Sadducees or Pharisees, they would say kick him out. He's you know, that was their view of John the Baptist. How can we entrapped him just like Jesus? John engaged in rhetorical battles with the Pharisees a few times in the Gospels.

Well, all of the reasons above are partially correct. I think Jesus put his testimony first to demonstrate that his authority trumped the authority of the prophets and writers the Old Testament. He was the final he was the final word from God.

He is the Word made flesh. That's why he comes first not the process prophecies. In the Old Testament, you know, and I mentioned this before God's came to him slowly and steady the arrival of John the Baptist Was like lightning when Jesus and began his ministry his preaching teaching unleashed an earthquake or tsunami of revelation upon the nation of Israel.

Jesus has four words. He says here. He says I say to you or I tell you in some versions these four simple words. They bear the nature of Jesus authority. When men are referring when men are teaching or preaching they typically refer to something or someone greater than themselves.

When they desire to make their case, you know frequently, you know quote the Bible which is of course the ultimate authority. We quote godly men in the past. You know, we use the reasoning of experts institutions elected officials religious scholars to buttress an argument.

But Jesus was deity cloaked in flesh. He had no need to appeal to any earthly power when Jesus says I say unto you. That's the Word of God. He doesn't have to say. Oh, by the way, here's some other to back it up.

As recording the Gospels he taught with authority that was lacking in the pedagogy or the instruction of the Pharisees and Sadducees when he talked people listen because he Spoke on his own accord. He didn't have to refer to things the The for this phrase I say to you and I also called if you think about the word truly the words truly truly.

That's its rhetorical cousin when Jesus is truly truly or I say unto you. He's saying pay attention. These make up the the warp and the loop that tie together the fabric of Jesus message in the Gospels.

When you're stitching a Cloth or a fabric the warp is the vertical the loop is the horizontal those two things stitch it together. So when Jesus is truly truly and I say unto you those are his dual commands.

This is my authority. I don't need any other person to back me up. I say this. You know if you look at Hebrews 613. What does it say it says for when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater.

He swore by himself and that's what Jesus does. There's no one greater than Jesus. He said he swears by himself and he speaks of his own authority. Jesus endorsement of John as a prophet is very important to the central theme of our passage.

If John were not a true pop prophet, then all the baptisms he performed illegitimate. His teachings were irrelevant and his austere or poor lifestyle was Inconsequential since it was basically a backdrop for deception.

That's why it was so important that John's ministry be validated because the Pharisees like well if he discredit John We can discredit Jesus and Jesus was just pushed back against that the the zeal and preaching and the passionate the passionate Spirit for the Kingdom of God will be relegated to the backbench as the Pharisees and their liturgical services took over they would go back to this formalistic dead ritualistic religion.

If John was a fraud. Then the Messiah that he heralded would it be a minimum tainted by association and at worst an outright fraud in this in the mold. As his herald it is possible and this and this is some speculation.

But it's possible the Pharisees were telling people that John's imprisonment was punishment for the Lord for deviating from established rabbinical doctrine. You see the Pharisees frequently throughout the New Testament, you know, oh this person got his illness.

It was a sick it was from God, you know this they did a stay sin. You know the righteous frequently get Tribulation difficulties that doesn't mean the Lord's punishing them and John being in prison was not a punishment for the Lord.

It was testing his faith. You know and I when the disciples asked Lord of Matthew about the whose sin was responsible for a man born with blindness. They were revealing some of the religious milieu or social environment.

They were brought up in. That's what the Pharisees were teaching people. If you're sick if you're if you're poor if you're this it's your fault. And God is punishing you and this is not so different from the prosperity teachers you today.

The prosperity teachers frequently say if something's going wrong in your life, it must be sinning or you must not have enough faith. Well, we just know that's not true. We live in a fallen world. There's a lot of sin in this world and we will suffer as Christians.

The Bible says all those who seek to live Godly Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The Pharisees have also forgotten if you think about what the lesson of Job what about multiple verses in the Psalms.

What about all the suffering David went through these people suffer greatly for the Lord. What about the second half of Hebrews 11 the second half of the Hall of Faith is people that suffer for the Lord.

Suffering does Not mean you're sinning. Psalm 34 19 says many are the afflictions the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Psalm 119 71 says it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I may learn your statutes.

In his reply Jesus authenticated John's ministry as well as he reestablished the doctrine that affliction and suffering are not always punitive or disciplinary. In fact, the Lord uses affliction as a chisel to chip away at the worldliness.

Independence and slothfulness that remain in our redeemed hearts. There's a lot of problems with our hearts. We're wedded to this world. We're tied to this world. We don't want to leave this world. We get comfortable in this world and God uses affliction to say where is your hope.

Is your hope here in the Bible and the Book of Life. Or is your hope in the world?

Some.

Some of the greatest saints in the Old Testament Experienced bitter periods of suffering. I mentioned Job and David. Of course, you have Joseph and Jacob too. They went through a lot as well. The Lord however, the Lord never abandoned any of them and they all experienced the truth of Romans 8 28.

Even though that verse had not yet been recorded and that's the important things. Remember the Old Testament Saints were saved in the same economy. We were and the same promises that we have today they had even if they didn't, you know have them written down.

You know Jesus he chose to eulogize John or to praise him during his imprisonment. Which was the lowest point of John's entire life. Similarly God chooses our weakest moments and humiliation to bring the greatest glory to his kingdom.

What does Paul say in 2nd Corinthians? He says and he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect and weakness. Therefore most gladly I will boast in my affirmaties that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God's strength shines most brightly through our weakness and afflictions. When people see someone that's happy and doing well. No one wonders about that when people see someone that's happy in the midst of suffering and agony and losing faith.

They wonder what's different about you and that's when God's Saints really shine. In the case of John the Baptist his removal from public life Had a double strengthening effect. John's faith was being strengthened as he learned to trust God from a jail cell.

Additionally the the faith of the early Christians was being strengthened as they transitioned from being disciples of John to becoming devoted followers of Jesus. Right, you know should we be content with a shadow when the object of it has arrived the object of the of our hope has Arrived who would prize a reflection in the mirror of the living person that made it like you wouldn't say.

Oh, I like that reflection over the person. You know, do we cherish do we cherish the mailman more than the missive from the loved one who brings us? No, it's that we want the letter. We don't really care about the mailman.

I mean, we do care about and we thank him for bringing it, but we don't say oh the mailman. We want the letter that comes from our loved ones. Our tribalistic hearts are prone to elevate messengers above the God who creates sustains and gifts these men to the church.

Messengers are not selected for their ability to linger after the message is delivered. Rather if they do not vacate the stage people will start investing these messengers with an inherent as opposed to a derived authority.

Pastors and preachers they have their authority is derived from the Holy Scriptures. They have no authority outside of that and the thing is when we start investing people with inherent authority. We're making an idol and that's the thing John the Baptist if he is stuck around.

He could be an idol in some people's mind when Jesus had come. As a writer of Hebrews so aptly put it He said God who at various times and in various ways. Spoke to the father's by the prophets has in this last day spoken to us by his son.

Whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world. We have Jesus. We don't need prophets. We don't need priests. We don't have that the perfect has come. My first application is a pat.

I want to talk about a pattern for church relationships. Especially like how Jesus talked about John the Baptist out of this text as the faultless Son of God. Jesus never committed sin or made mistake his entire life.

Additionally his interpersonal skills give us a great pattern to emulate when dealing with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. The public question that John's disciples brought to Christ had the potential to adversely impact Christ ministry.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were laboring tirelessly to implant similar doubts as the authenticity authenticity of Christ ministry in the minds of the people. Imagine the smug satisfaction the self-righteous scribes would get from setting the followers of John against the followers of Christ.

Jesus had all authority and it was perfectly within his right. He could have exhorted admonished or even rebuked John disciples for not believing Jesus Messianic claims. Jesus was no stranger rebukes.

He rebuked Nicodemus. He rebuked the Pharisees. Or admonition he gave Martha admonition. He gave the rich rung ruler admonition. How many of us would lash out strongly rebuke someone for questioning whether or not we were follower of Christ?

By virtue of his deity Jesus is further above us in the galaxies above the earth that we walk on. Now examine the tenderness and kindness of Jesus toward John the Baptist and his disciples who had just questioned his person in life work.

What is the great work that God has given each of us to accomplish or each Christian. Most people have probably replied by saying the Great Commission. That's an excellent answer. The Great Commission is the primary focus of a Christian but it only covers the outward focus of the Christian life.

A Christian also has an inward focus. Our inward focus is building up the local body of believers so that they can go out and reach a hostile world for Christ weary Saints in a hostile world. They need the rest and encouragement offered by fellow pilgrims to be rejuvenated and strengthened for our lifelong spiritual battle.

Here's what Paul's listen to what Paul says the Thessalonian Church in 1st Thessalonians 5 11. Therefore comfort each other just as you are doing just as you also are doing. Therefore comfort each other and edify each other just as you also are doing.

The Greek word for edified this text literally means to build up or construct all Christians not just pastors. We're all called to build up the body of Christ. We can do this privately through supplicatory prayer or publicly through praise and encouragement of our fellow believers.

Rather than focusing on John's weaknesses. Jesus chose to extol John's strengths to the assembled multitudes. He focused on what John did well. Read the words Jesus. It provides us with a two-part pattern that we can use to build up fellow believers in Christ.

First Jesus recognized the service that John had rendered to men as a Prophet. John had faithfully delivered God's Word and boldly proclaimed the gospel message to his contemporaries. Like the sons of Noah covered up their father's nakedness with a sheet Jesus recounts John's past works.

So the multitudes remember John's zeal for the Lord and not maybe his confusion or his disciples confusion about Jesus kingdom. When fellow Christians become disillusioned or disagree with us do we write them off as irredeemable or problem people?

Can we survive if God applied that same standard to us? No, we can't. Rather what we should do is we should follow our Savior's lead and publicly praise their service while privately petition God to further sanctify them.

If we truly want to build up the body of Christ Then we need to love our fellow believers as Christ loved us. The pistols of the Corinthians in the epistle to the Corinthians Paul states this very succinctly.

He says love bears all things love believes all things love hopes all things and love endures all things. Next Jesus lauds John's work for God as the messianic forerunner. Smashing. If you think about a bulldozer, what does a bulldozer do?

It smashes trees it tears up old roads. It moves piles of dirt. Doing all this the bulldozer prepares the ground for structures or roads. These actions are violent loud and they throw clouds of dust and dirt up in the air.

Most people would not want to have bulldozers operating near their property for these reasons. However, if you don't have bulldozers, our communities would never get new schools churches houses or roads.

We would never have any of that. We need that bulldozer to go first and clear the ground. Was John refined winsome and tactful. The answers that were no probably not and highly unlikely. Did John make many enemies among the common people in the religious elite?

Absolutely. If you call people to repentance and exhort them to be wholly devoted to God's work You will surely have enemies in those secular and the religious quarters. However, John's actions is a gospel herald.

They were an essential part of the advent of our Messiah. Thomas Watson aptly says this in his classic work heaven taken by storm. I alluded to this earlier in this in the message. He said John the Baptist was a burning and shining light.

He did burn in his doctrine and shine in his light and therefore man pressed into heaven when he preached to press on and to Repent and believe. You can look at John's life and say he didn't do that because John's life was devoted to that mission.

How do we apply this to our church life? Can we recognize the value that certain people bring to our church body? Even if they don't fit the ideal of our church of what we think is an ideal church member.

Do we judge people's usefulness to God by how they get along with us and not how they how they advance God's kingdom? People that love God and call others to radical holiness have always been hated and persecuted.

By those whose consciences are pricked by their teaching or the lifestyle. Comfortable Christianity is the sworn enemy of the dogged pursuit of holiness. If you want to be a comfortable Christian, you are not going to be holy.

All of us are different members the body of Christ and we all serve different purposes in the church. Paul writes the following to the Corinthian Church and. These members of the body body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts of greater Modesty, but our presentable parts have no need.

But God composed the body having given greater honor to the part which lacks it. Our most presentable features our hair eyes and limbs. Those are very disposable. You don't need hair eyes or limbs to survive.

You can live and thrive with those body parts. People do that all the time. On the other hand think about of our internal organs. If those are removed or you lose your eyes, you know. Like if you lose those you can't live and those are things that people don't see so we're not to judge the felt fellow believers.

Or fellow church members according to how good you know, do they fit the ideal to member? It's like are they useful to the body and are they advancing the kingdom? God's lesson for us is very plain. God evaluates people according to their usefulness the church and not according to their popularity in the church body power useful for God.

That's what God evaluates you on. Um, so for my second point I'm going to talk about Old Testament prophecy fulfilled. Verse 10 says for this is he of whom is written behold. I send a messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.

Picking up in verse 10 of Matthew. We find that Jesus quotes from Malachi 3 1. Malachi 3 1 says behold I send my messenger. I'll prepare. Who will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple.

Even the messenger of the Covenant whom you delight. Behold, he is coming says the Lord of hosts. I would like to focus on two words from this Old Testament text first of our prepare clear as it's rendered in the CSV and the NASB translations.

The Hebrew word here is Upinna and Malachi 3 1 is the only time this word is used in the entire Old Testament. While this does prevent us from comparing the usage of this word in other Bible verses. It does furnish us another sign of the uniqueness of John's ministry.

You know ancient heralds. They might often carry the ring of their sovereign with them to prove that like this is my sovereign's ring. What I say is his word. As the Messiah's messenger John was giving something a little less tangible but still no less significant.

He gave it he had his own word in Malachi that basically said, you know, but prepare and clear the way that's specific to John. The Greek word for prepare a clear and this is for the New Testament was written primarily in Greek.

The Greek word for that is actually found three times it now the Greek word for it is actually found in other places in New Testament, but it's found three times referring to John the Baptist in Matthew 1110 the parallel text in Luke 7 27 and mark 1 2.

These verbs are used in conjunction with a direct object. Namely, what's the object to use the way. All the major Bible versions translate this phrase with the exact same words a direct object Receives the action of a transitive verb so when you have a direct object the way it's receiving now.

It's receiving prepare the way. In this case the preparing or clearing is being done to the way of Messiah. What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this sentence? Like what what does that mean and pair the way was John preparing Israel's expectations with Messiah?

Many Jews were looking for their conquering hero in the form of a Davidic King. They were certainly not expecting a humble carpenter or suffering servant as their Messiah. Was John preparing the people for their covenantal transition from Old Testament believers to New Testament Christians?

John had a lot of you know for those days novel use he insisted on repentance before baptism his decision to preach outside. The normal worship centers he didn't preach in the temple or synagogue that we know about and it's practical sermons in the common tongue.

All represented a departure from the Jewish liturgy of his day. He was very different from the Scribes and Pharisees. These are both these are all solid answers. But I think the best explanation is that John was preparing the hearts of the Jewish people to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

However in the spirit of the Berean believers, I don't want you just take my word for it. Providentially God recorded John's mission in the final verses of the final book of the Old Testament the 400 years of Intertestamental silence was bookended by the promise send John the Baptist and his arrival on the scene in the early years of our Lord.

Please turn with me to Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6. I'm going to read that together Malachi writes Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

Lest I come and strike the earth of the curse. In this chapter once again, John is typified as Elijah like Elijah. He is pictured as being the only person standing between Israel and God's wrath. If you think about Elijah is like, you know When people do when people listen to Elijah God relented when they didn't God sent destruction on them.

So Elijah was the only person holding back the wrath of God. Many verse most verses in the gospel relate to the healing of the vertical relationship between God and man. This verse actually examines the horizontal relationship between the people of the earth.

Jesus came to bring peace between God and redeemed mankind. That's the first thing he came to do peace between us and God. Additionally though through the salvation of his elect He gave Christians a foretaste of the communion that the Universal Church will experience in heaven.

Unity in the gospel is a very glory is a glorious thing. A. While while we live on this earth indwelling sin prevents us from perfect relationships with fellow believers it always will. Satan's dominance in our relationship has forever been broken by the gospel of Christ, but we still having we still have remaining sin in us.

Often we are tempted to think that God does not care about our relationships with others as long as we are on good terms with Him. Nothing could be further from the truth. The verses from Malachi show that God's punishment for broken relationships will involve striking the earth with the curse.

So God cares about the vertical and the horizontal relationship. The second word that's important in this passage is the word suddenly. This word is an adverb that modifies the action of Jesus coming to his temple in this case.

Scholars and commentators I believe as well. It refers to him coming to earth. Jesus life on this earth was very brief. 33 years. He didn't you know, I'm 33 years old. So he died. He died at my age. His period of active ministry was even shorter.

His active ministry was probably three years. Maybe a little less than that when these period of time are compared to the entire history of mankind. 67 ,000 years they seem quite short. However, the perfect Son of God.

He didn't require millennia to overturn the curse of sin for the world that he created. The Lord bends time to fit his will. It's like a leashed man a muzzle dog under his power. He doesn't need we think oh we need 6 ,000 years.

Jesus is like nope. I need three. He doesn't need to. He doesn't work on our timeline. The next thing is use ministry. It was characterized by an intense urgency. He had little time for leisure or recreation.

Jesus was not recorded to have been enjoying vacations going shopping's make going shopping making art idly conversing with friends on matters of the gospel. There's nothing wrong with those things. Those are fine pastimes.

But Jesus played a determination that fits his solemn task of atoning for mankind sin. He didn't his his work. Well, he was focused on what the Lord gave him to do if he wasn't witnessing. If he wasn't preaching.

He was praying. If he wasn't praying he was fasting. He was always always. He was always devoted to the Lord and doing the work. The Lord had sent him. God had sent him to do. And in doing this he provided us the ultimate example of how we should redeem the time.

Jesus redeemed every second he had we should Do the same? The most the most apparent rendering of the word suddenly I think refers to how Jesus burst in the scene in ancient Israel if you. About the Jews at the time they were preoccupied with the Roman occupation.

Religious intrigue. Sadducees versus Pharisees. Pharisees versus the scenes. Herodians versus everyone. They were they were really focused on sectarian strife. The Jews hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews.

So there was a lot of that going on and they were wholly unprepared for the birth of Messiah. They were focusing on current events. Instead of focusing on earthly affairs. They should have followed Simeon and Anna's lead.

What were Simeon and Anna doing? They were praying daily in the temple. You don't find Simeon or Anna getting involved in, you know, religious squabbles talking about the Roman occupation. Hating on the Samaritans.

They were waiting for the coming of the Lord. If following current affairs of any flavor is our main obsession. It's gonna be very hard to adjust our heart into a proper spirit of communion with God. There's nothing wrong with reading the news listening to politics, you know, you know looking into religious, you know back and forth.

You know squabbles, but if that's your main focus, you're not gonna have time for Christ. You just won't. And although the first and second comings of Jesus are radically different. They do have one thing in common, right?

His first advent was a rapid and caught the vast majority of Israel by surprise. His second advents also gonna be sudden the Bible says it's gonna shock the world and people aren't gonna be ready for that either.

As we see later and and we'll talk about this more in my next method message. We'll focus all solely on Matthew 11 12. The term violence in Matthew 11 12 does not refer to physical violence. It refers to swift unyielding determination that sweeps everything and everyone out of its path in the establishment of God's kingdom.

So when we hear the word violence in our culture violence that has come mean physical violence and killing and you know. Maybe like boxing and stuff but violence here is not that at all. It's determination.

It's pressing in its endurance. That's what this violence means. For my second application. I want to talk about how all Christians are heralds for God. We're all God's heralds. Prophecy is generally accepted as the ability to foresee the future.

Additionally, the word prophet is often associated with the ability to perform signs or wonders. You see this a lot in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament God gave these powers to his prophets to vindicate their authority as messengers of God.

They say I the Lord says and then Elijah closes up the heavens. They said the Lord says and a famine comes in the land that was there to vindicate their their message. However, this word has another dimension that often goes overlooked.

Foretelling or revealing the future and forth telling or delivering God's message to mankind are both defined in this one word. There was no record in the New Testament of John ever performing a miracle or predicting the future.

He didn't do that. That was not his ministry. He was not there before miracles. He was not there to foretell the future. His ministry can sit consisted of preaching the gospel and baptism. Which many people today would consider boring or mundane.

That's kind of commonplace, right? Leonard Ravenhill had the following to say about John. He said John the Baptist never performed any miracles yet. The Lord Jesus Christ said he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets, right?

John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. His ministry represented an inflection point in God's Covenantal plan for his people so an inflection point is when like a line goes up hits a certain point turns back down goes a different Way.

God's true servants. They are pastors whose role is to Foretell the commands of God and not foretell or perform miracles. If pastors are primarily focused on foretelling or perform miracles. They're looking at the Old Testament.

John is the is the Old Testament last the Old Testament prophets and his ministry was what modern pastors should emulate. We have the complete revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures and we had the testimony of his son Jesus Christ.

Who is our final prophet and our great high priest now that the perfect has come? We have no more need of signs or shadows to confirm the veracity of God's Word. We don't need any more signs or shadows.

We have this this is this is sign enough for us. God's given us the ultimate sign and revelation in the perfect life and atoning death of Christ. If Jesus coming into this world living a perfect life dying on the cross being raised in the third day is not enough for you.

No sign of miracle will be if that's not enough if that's not enough to convince you of Jesus. Jesus inauguration of the new government also inaugurated change in the scope of the gospel message. Before Jesus advent salvation was primary limit to who the Jews Israel God's chosen people and those were who are willing to separate themselves from the nations and join themselves to national Israel.

If you think of Ruth and Rahab both part of Jesus line, they separated from their nations and became Israelites. So to become a Christian back then meant becoming an Israelite ethnic part of that ethnic Israel.